When the men who had been our companions in travel, and who had shared with us the dangers of entering the unopened country of Kikuyu, were dismissed to the sea, we felt very intensely our isolated position. On each succeeding day we could see that storms were threatening, and that the blood brotherhood which the chieftain had induced only affected a very small portion of the inhabitants. The chief himself, nevertheless, who entered into that solemn native compact never turned his back upon us nor evinced any deceit whatever, but continued faithful under the most trying circumstances and severest ordeals, through which we eventually had to pass.
In lonely isolation, but with perfect confidence in God, my husband settled down to the important though tiresome and difficult work of reducing to writing the language of the tribe. It was not easy to employ natives, from whose lips he might catch the articulate sounds which expressed their ideas and commit them to writing, for service was to them equivalent to bondage and slavery. Who of all their ancestors had ever entered the service of another outside their own clan? And why should they? To do so would bring disgrace upon their race, and merit the opprobrium of their comrades.
The natural curiosity of some members of the tribe, however, coupled with the prospect of receiving a string of beads at the setting of the sun, was sufficient to conquer their natural prejudice, and therefore my husband was enabled to get a new man every few days. This continual chopping and changing of natives materially slowed the work, for it was difficult to transmit to their minds our purpose in grasping the vocal expression of their language, as they were void of any idea that visible signs could awaken in the mind certain audible sounds. Having no lettering to express their thoughts, and being without any tradition whatever of the art of writing, and misunderstanding its purpose, they supposed we were engaged in some magic performance; and oftentimes, after the work of an hour or two, they would disappear and never return. Nevertheless, others took their places, lured by a few coils of wire with which they might decorate themselves.
Accompanied by these raw natives, my husband patiently and persistently sought to gain a knowledge of their language, so that he might speedily be enabled to preach the Gospel to them in their own tongue, and that the Missionaries, who would eventually follow him and enter upon his labors, might have no difficulty in acquiring the dialect. Though many were the obstacles which stressed the work, yet, day by day, he persevered in interpreting the meaning of their seemingly incoherent language, and expressing their sounds in Roman characters.
One of the trials in beginning was his inability to ask questions. Therefore he had to point to various objects around him and, for the time being, take for granted the correctness of the names they applied to the various things indicated. As he got familiar with a few sentences, however, information flowed more freely. He could then ask "What is this? What do you call that? What is it to walk, to run, to eat, to sleep?" and so forth, always seeking to suit the action to the word. It was with very considerable trouble he obtained their sounds for abstract terms, such as folly, virtue, existence, knowledge, purity, wit; but after much slow perseverance all difficulties were overcome.
After some time it was discovered that the language had quite an extensive vocabulary, and was much more forcible and pointed in its significations than the Swahili language of the Coast. The Wakamba, (or more correctly speaking, Akamba as they call themselves, and as I shall call them hereafter), have a remarkably fluent language, in which every word and almost every syllable ends in a vowel. It is entirely void of onomatopoetic words, such as we find in large numbers in the English tongue, as crow, buzz, pewit, etc., words which have been formed to resemble the sound of the thing denoted.
Their language is wonderfully expressive, and is agglutinative in its formation. The verbs occupy a very prominent place, while the pronouns and tense auxiliaries of the verbs are joined to the root as prefixes, and for this reason several terms are united in one compound word. Kunyamasya, for example, is the verb to persecute, ku being the sign of the infinitive. Makanumyamasya is "They will persecute him," the first syllable ma signifying the pronoun "they," ka the future tense, and mu the pronoun "him," while nyamasya is the verb root.
It gives one much food for thought to find a language, so philosophic in its structure, on the lips of naked natives, who are without a single written sign to represent their ideas: and we were forced to the conclusion that it must have come to them at Babel or elsewhere, from the hand of the Eternal and Omniscient God. With these undraped denizens of the woods there is not a particle of evidence of evolution, but on the other hand very extensive, if not certain, proof of devolution.
When my husband was able to speak a little in the Kikamba tongue, he began preaching the Gospel, sometimes to a few individuals, and again to larger numbers, whenever he could get them together.
Scarcely a day passed without dozens of people coming to have a glimpse of the white man and his wife and children. The latter were probably of greater interest than either my husband or myself. No fresh batch of natives ever saw the little ones without audibly expressing their great surprise. At times, after their feelings of awe had subsided, they would burst out into uncontrollable laughter at some little thing which tickled their risibility. Often they encroached upon our quarters as early as sunrise, but we allowed them perfect freedom to come and go as they wished, so that they might gain confidence. One of our little children had very long hair and this amused them greatly. They would say to one another "Tazama! Tazama! Nzwii yake ta kisithi kya n’gatata!" (Look! Look! Her hair is like a gnu's tail!)
My husband was rejoiced at the opportunities, thus afforded, of calling these awe-struck spectators aside, and explaining to them in broken sentences the purpose of our coming among them. On these occasions he always took the Bible in his hand, and told them the message he delivered to them was not his own, but was taken out of the Book, which was the revealed will of God. These people spread the news far and wide about the Book, and oftentimes a number of old men came many miles to find out what the Book said upon various subjects.
In some cases the neighboring tribe of Masai had been raiding their villages and taking their cattle, and they wished to know from my husband what the Book said about that matter. He was always very blunt and faithful with them, and would say, ‘Well now! You know that you have in times past raided the Masai and taken their cattle. This Book says, ‘Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,’ so you need not think it strange that when you stole their cattle they should come and capture yours. It says in the Book, ‘Let him that stole steal no more,’ so now you must never go to their country again raiding for cattle, but be satisfied with the increase which God may give to you; and let your young men, who now do nothing but fight, stay at home and help the women in their work and look after the cattle.’
On one occasion a big, firm, severe looking man came, with a terrible story about one of his wives (he was blessed with three!) running away to another man in a distant part of the country, and wanted to know what the Book said about that. After there was explained to him something of what the Bible taught on marital relationships, the man hung down his head for a minute or two in deep thought, and then looking up he told my husband that a few days ago he had seen some native women looking at a tiny baby, which one of our children carried in her arms, and said that if he would only let him have that for a few days he would be able to bring back his wife.
The little "baby" to which he referred was a doll, which had been sent out from Europe for one of the children. The women who had been looking at it could not, at first, believe that it was non-living, and persisted in their inquiries as to what food we gave it. When it was demonstrated to them beyond the shadow of a doubt that the toy had no life, their amazement knew no bounds, and they smote their breasts and laid their hands upon their mouths.
The man whose wife had run away happened to be present at the time, and saw the doll and, being assured of its harmlessness, he now requested that the child's toy might be given to him for a day or two. My husband, at once realizing that his purpose was to frighten the people, quickly refused to grant his request, as he did not care to allow the man to bring terror among his brother natives through anything belonging to us. I was sorry for the man, however, as he seemed very anxious about the return of his wife, and I said that I would ask my husband to let him have it, if he would promise to return it safely.
Eventually the man went away with a happy heart, carrying the ‘baby’ in his arms. After three days he returned with a beaming face and a victorious mien, saying that he had got his wife back. We asked him how he had accomplished it. His reply was to the effect that, on his arrival at the village to which his wife had fled he suddenly uncovered the doll in the presence of the people, who were so terrified that they rushed off into the surrounding forest, and during the excitement he captured his wife, and soon disappeared with her in the bush.
In the early stage of our life in that unopened country, it was very difficult to obtain natives for the countless labor in connection with the station, as the young men had never been accustomed to any kind of labor. For the housework, the difficulties were greater, inasmuch as the women and girls of the tribe were simply beasts of burden to the men, and were every day occupied in the work of the villages and, according to native custom, were not supposed to sleep away from their huts. For this reason, it was an utter impossibility for us to get a single girl for household work in our home. In addition to all this, there seemed no chance of them overcoming their prejudice against wearing clothing. Nothing would have induced the Akamba girls to put on any cloth covering.
We had as a result to turn our attention to the young men, and from them we recruited our household helpers, as well as general workers. Although the male population went about in nakedness, yet they had not the same strong prejudice against covering which was found to be inborn in the female mind. We were successful in getting some of them to come to us and learn cooking and housekeeping, nursing and laundry work. But how could these poor wild inhabitants of the woods, who, since they had opened their eyes to the light of the sun, had never seen kettle nor saucepan, cup nor plate, bed nor table, nor household utensil of any kind, be expected to adapt themselves to the work of even the jungle home of a white man? Nevertheless, they came to us, most of them, out of mere curiosity to see how the Muzungu lived.
When their names were written down for employment, the first thing we did was to hand them a piece of soap and send them to the river to wash themselves from head to foot, and scrub off the ocher and castor oil with which they had been painted. When they returned from the stream, with their black, glossy skin shining brightly, there was given to each man a shirt and knickers of unbleached calico. These garments I made in moments which were snatched from a very busy life, and were kept in stock for the purpose.
After a week or two, when the curiosity of these young men had been gratified, and they had got to know something of our manner of life, they left their work and went off to their dens among the bushes. No increase of payment, in the form of extra beads or wire, would have induced them to stay for one hour longer than their wild spirits were content to be bound. It was unreasonable for us to expect these free sons of the jungle, who all their lives had been accustomed to going where they liked and doing as they liked, to bear the burden of service.
However, we had always a few to come and stay with us a short time, and when they left others filled their places. Hundreds of men thus passed a few weeks with us and then went their way, all having heard the message of the love of God in Christ Jesus. The sharpest and most active of these young men were employed for cooking and housework, while to others was given the work of drawing water, cutting up and bringing in firewood, cultivating our garden and keeping the station in order.
Continual work was essential to prevent the jungle encroaching upon our buildings. The growth was so great and wild seeds so numerous, that, in three months after the rains had fallen, it would be hardly possible to approach the station, if the space surrounding it, and the cultivated paths leading to it from the well beaten native tracks, were not kept open by continual labor.
Alas! however, when these raw natives were just beginning to be useful, a longing for the freedom of their bush life would come upon them with irresistible force: the shirt and knickers would be cast aside, and our helpers would return to their untrammeled conditions, clad once more in bright red clay and the oil of the castor bean, and sniffing again the free air of their wild sunny hills.
Solid foundations, nevertheless, were being laid and the dignity of labor was slowly but surely being taught and recognized. We found the Akamba continually at war with the tribes bordering on their country, seeking to steal their cattle and capture their wives and maidens. The other tribes then came to retaliate, and considerable slaughter was the result. Oftentimes the dead bodies of the men killed in these raids were found quite near to our station, and the heavy buffalo hide shields, which had been thrown away by the wounded and dying, were picked up in the grass on the surrounding hillsides.
Under difficulties which ever seemed to be on the increase, my husband continued the work of reducing the language to writing, but, save for a few friendly natives, the people were quite unwilling to listen to our message. Day after day, however, we were able to bring before the minds of individuals the great fact of God's redeeming love, and occasionally opportunities were presented to us of addressing ten or twelve of the old men who lived near to our station. A limited circle, under the nominal sway of the old chief with whom my husband had made blood brotherhood, had got to know us fairly well, and to understand our purposes; but beyond that boundary the natives were absolutely unfriendly.
We had been able to exchange some of our barter goods for a few zebu cattle, so that we might have a little milk for our young children, but these hostile natives came one night and attempted to steal them. They only managed, however, to get away with the calves, when we became aware of their presence. My husband made a rush to the cattle enclosure, and found that the marauders had already disappeared in the forest. From the African zebu cattle no milk can be obtained unless the calves are first allowed to suck, and that's why, in the absence of the calves, our scanty supply of milk completely vanished. On the following morning my husband tracked the raiders for about ten miles, but their marks were eventually lost on a dry grassy plain.
The cunning natives were bold enough to return a few nights later to capture the mothers of the calves. The cattle were enclosed in a strong picket, and our two herdsmen, belonging to the surrounding district, slept in a shed within the enclosure. When these two natives were awakened by the noise, the daring plunderers had already broken through the surrounding fence, and were attempting to pull the cattle out through the narrow passage which they had opened up in the stockade. The herdsmen, climbing an accessible part of the fence, fled for their lives from the cattle pen, and rushed to our dwelling-house to tell my husband.
He jumped out of bed and, clutching his rifle and cartridge bag, he ran as fast as was possible in the midnight darkness to the cattle enclosure, which was situated about one hundred yards from the house. Seeking to frighten the thieves, he fired several shots over the cattle pen, and then could hear the stampede of the raiding crowd. Discharging a few more shots high in air as they receded, he returned for a candle lantern; and then found that the natives had only been able to pull out one cow, through the contracted passage they had made in the fence. On hearing the shots, the warriors were evidently so annoyed at the thought of not getting away with their booty, that several of them had driven their long, two-edged blades into the body of the cow which was found lying in a pool of blood.
Time after time the natives made many futile attempts to poison and murder us, but we were forewarned of many of these in a very providential manner. The natives sent to us a most keen and cunning man of their tribe to seek employment with us on the station, so that he might observe all our movements, and thus aid the natives in their plan to surprise and murder us. We were rejoiced to see this able-bodied man seeking work, and immediately named the amount of beads and wire we would give him every moon, and our offer he gladly accepted. We thought it was a very hopeful sign and augured well for a speedy, if not an immediate, intimacy with the natives. At every convenient opportunity, we spoke to him of the love of N'gai (the Supreme Being) to all mankind, as manifested in His Son Jesus Christ.
The man was very reserved and suspicious at first, and his keen eyes followed our every movement from day to day. In a short time, however, he seemed to become quite attached to us, and eventually told us of the secret purpose for which he had been sent, and revealed to us every plot and strategy of the natives so that, under the blessing of God, we were able to upset their fateful plans.
After some time, the natives suspected that the man, whom they had sent as a spy, had turned traitor and become friendly towards us; and he was obliged to go away to another part of the country. Although he seemed greatly interested in the message of the Gospel, he gave no evidence while with us of any change of heart. Nevertheless, his attachment to us was most sincere, and his services inexpressibly valuable.
One evening a vast multitude of warriors, who had determined to wipe out the white man from their country, were on their way to our station from a distant district, under the chieftainship of a very active and influential native, named Mwana Muka. By sundown, large numbers of these armed men, dressed in full war paint, had reached the base of the neighboring hills, from which point they were to make an onslaught on our station. Mwana Muka had told his warriors that they need not fear the white man for he had made medicine to overcome all his powers, and turn the bullets of his rifle into a stream of harmless water.
As on many other occasions of imminent danger, the children were laid down to sleep in their clothing and boots, so as to be ready at any moment for an immediate rush to the jungle, as a last resort to escape the keen-edged blade of the native or the flames of a burning building.
It had been arranged by the chief that a number of his fighting men should carry with them lighted brands, which they were to fling on the roof of the grass-thatched buildings at the moment of attack.
No sooner had the red ball of the sun sunk in the west, than huge clouds came rolling up on one another in vast banks on our eastern sky, the point from which our rains generally came. With the rushing breeze of evening, which always followed the sun to the west, these dense black mountains of moisture spread over the sky like a pall; and soon a few vivid, sharp lines of lightning gleamed across the vault of heaven, followed by peals of rattling thunder, which seemed to shake the earth, and in a moment or two the rain came down in torrents.
We had brought the matter of our position before the Lord, and were assured that if it pleased Him He would, in His own way, bring us deliverance. As far as human forethought and caution were concerned, we had arranged to meet the enemy as best we could, and were determined to sit up and wait their arrival. Mr. Ainsworth had most kindly offered to us the protection of the Machakos fortification, and proposed sending an armed escort to take us there, but we determined to stand by our position.
The rain continued with ever-increasing severity, and soon came down in sweeping sheets of immense volume, while the entire heavens were lit up with zigzag streaks of discharging electricity which darted from east to west with terrifying frequency. As the earth was illumined by the flashes, we could see that, even where the ground sloped at an angle of forty-five degrees, it was covered with a flowing sheet of water several inches deep, so plentiful was the fall. The two quiet, silent streams, which daily wended their way on either side of the elevation on which our station was built, were turned into deep torrents, which roared as if the bases of the hills were being laid bare, and rushed through the valleys with such intense suddenness, that huge trees were torn up by the roots and carried out unto the distant plains. During the space of half an hour, the heavens were let loose in such a manner as I have never seen since or before in that land of tropical downpours.
We could not but see the mighty hand of God in this wonderful deliverance. Nothing, perhaps, unnerves and prostrates more rapidly the naked native of the tropics than a deluge of rain, attended by a temperature below the average. Not only were the multitude of resolute warriors stopped by the drenching torrents, but their sinewy bow strings were thereby rendered useless in discharging the poisoned arrows. Realizing that the sky, and probably God Himself were fighting against them, they slunk back in a half-dying condition to their booths in the bush.
We did not lie down to rest until the morning was about to dawn, and soon we heard from some friendly natives of the unhappy retreat of Mwana Muka's brave hordes. Our little garden was completely washed out that night, and some of the trees in it were torn up and carried away, while the shape of its surface was completely changed, and several ravines excavated through it by the sudden torrents of water.
During the few succeeding days we breathed more freely, and were somewhat off our guard; but one night we were awaked with the news that our cattle pen was empty, having been broken into by a few wily warriors, not more than half a dozen as we gathered from the footprints. Having been unsuccessful in approaching us in blustering numbers, they had determined to accomplish our destruction in piecemeal, by cunning subtlety and devious sneakiness. They had noiselessly, with sharp pointed sticks removed the soil, which had been rendered loose and spongy by the heavy rains, from the base of the stakes forming the enclosure; and, dragging them out, had driven the cattle through the opening, and got clear away without anyone hearing a sound.
The next morning my husband, accompanied by a few natives, followed the trail of the herd for many miles in the direction of the Masai country, until it was lost in a confusing maze. We learned afterward that the cunning plunderers had, as a trick, first directed their course towards the Masai land, and then, doubling on their tracks, had roamed about with the cattle hither and thither for several days in the uninhabited wilds. Only when they were thoroughly assured that they had successfully confused their pursuers, did they return to their own district and divide the spoil.
When, after considerable pressure, the English Government took over that great unowned and unknown territory as a British Protectorate, our troubles multiplied to an alarming degree, and our lives often hung trembling in the balance. Except among a limited circle around our station, there was an ever-increasing undercurrent of feeling against the presence of a white man in the country, and a strong determination, not only to kill the representative of the Government, but also to encompass our lives and those of our young children. Already God had given to us another baby boy, since we had entered the Ukamba country—the first European child born in the interior of what is now known as British East Africa—and a widespread rumor had gained circulation among the natives, that we would soon overrun the country with fearless and powerful white men.
The Government employed natives from the island of Zanzibar and the Coast, and trained them as soldiers under European surveillance, for the protection of the two forts in the interior, which the Government had taken over from the East Africa Company, the one on the western border of the Ukamba country under the command of Mr. John Ainsworth, and the other on the boundary of Kikuyu under the superintendence of Mr. F. G. Hall.
Within a few miles of our station was also established a small Government post, which was manned by trained soldiers; but the Akamba surrounded this outpost and captured it, murdering, skinning and mutilating the defenders, and taking possession of their rifles and ammunition.
After the men of the outpost had been massacred, Mr. Ainsworth sent his newly arrived lieutenant Mr. C. R. W. Lane, with a party of sixty rifles, to recover and bury the bodies of the men which had been slaughtered. This armed force boldly ventured into our district; but to save their own lives were obliged to beat a hasty and sudden retreat over the hills, to their fortified position on the border, pursued by the agile and blood- seeking natives.
As far as man could judge, matters were becoming very serious for us, and daily hurrying to a climax. Several thousand armed warriors were already mustering in our vicinity. They were highly overjoyed with the overthrow of the Government outpost, and flushed with the success of routing the rifle-armed band, which had recently attempted to enter their region. There seemed but one step between us and death.
My heart sank within me as I looked into the bright happy faces of our little ones, who were unaware of the terrible dangers which surrounded them; and I could not help thinking that, before the morrow's sun would rise, their mutilated remains might be scattered about the station. The fact that they were quite unconscious of the perils which overshadowed them only increased my deep and inexpressible anxiety.
I realized, however, that God, who had extended His protection to us in such a marked manner in the past, was able to deliver us now if it were for His glory. I knew that my husband had already, under the blessing of God, worked his way into the hearts of many of the natives around us, and I believed that, at least in our own immediate district, not a single native would send an arrow to the heart of either the children or ourselves.
Although the natives outside the circle of our influence were determined upon murdering us, yet they were so conscious of the fearlessness and bravery of my husband, that they were somewhat in awe of the powers which they supposed him to possess. Some of them had stood by when they saw him in the presence of lions, and had witnessed the King of Beasts, which they dreaded so much, fall flat to the earth with a tiny bullet from his firearms. Dozens of times they had watched him go straight up to a rhinoceros on the open plain, and seen the huge beast, which could scatter some hundreds of them, drop stone dead as if by magic at the sound of his rifle. When they were hungry, he had gone out for a few hours through the surrounding bush, and shot several of these great pachyderms, on which they might feast and satisfy their craving for flesh.
These very men were now gathering in large numbers, thirsting for blood, and resolved upon surrounding the destruction of our lives. In these times of indescribable anxiety, my husband had to rise several times each night and, armed with a rifle, patrol the station buildings to see that all was right.
On the evening of the day on which the armed company had to flee to the Machakos stronghold before the enraged warriors, Mr. Ainsworth, having heard of the dangerous position in which we stood, sent a band of thirty armed soldiers, to carry me and the children to the fort for safety. With the escort he sent an official letter, warning us of the great and imminent danger of remaining in our unfortified position, and expressing the urgent necessity of making our escape immediately. He assured us of what we already knew, that there were several thousands of armed warriors assembling near to the base of the hill on which our station was built, who had determined to murder us and burn down the station buildings. To this letter there was added a postscript, signed by Mr. Lane, which, in abrupt and graphic language, told of the terrible experiences he had gone through in our district that day, and how his force of riflemen were chased across the hills by the multitudes of armed bowmen. We were intensely grateful to Mr. Ainsworth for his kindness; but we felt that we must decline the offered protection of the Government fort, and stand or fall in the position to which God had called us, being assured that He would, in His own way, direct the issue of affairs in accordance with His will.
We believed that if we left the Mission Station the assembled warriors would immediately burn the buildings to the ground, and that we might be prevented from ever returning again to the charred remains, which would then crown our undefended and isolated situation. It was also apparent to us that if we identified ourselves with the fortification, the natives could not but come to the conclusion that we were allied with the Government in any course they might adopt in their administration; and the natives might therefore be greatly prejudiced against us and all future Missionaries, and the progress of the Gospel of Christ immeasurably hindered.
That night was a time of inexpressible tension and painful suspense. The two infant children were fast asleep, and, although the others had been put to bed in their clothing, they were kept awake by the excitement of the hour and the troubled expression, which we tried to hide, but which they readily detected.
Every possible preparation had been made by my husband, with the few men at his disposal, to combat any attack upon our station. These men were armed with old snider rifles, while our only personal arms were two magazine rifles and a self-extracting revolver.
Having done all that lay within our power, to enable us to make a momentary show of resistance to the natives, we threw ourselves upon God, and prayed that it might please Him to defeat and confound the plans of these fierce, relentless warriors and send us deliverance.
While thus engaged, we heard an unearthly, exploding sound overhead, and, hurrying to the door to see what was the matter, we found the night sky blazing with light, and our eyes caught sight of a white-hot meteor of immense size, shooting across the sky over our station. The gigantic fiery ball whizzed through the atmosphere with terrific speed, lighting up the whole countryside with a radiant, dazzling glow, and leaving behind it a great trail of fire, as it disappeared, striking a mountain thirty miles away.
The huge meteorite had swept directly over the heads of the armed multitude of warriors, who were struck with such terror and mortal dread that they rushed panic-stricken to their homes among the hills.